Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ON
BY
JOHN DAVISON c*
M.A.
OXFORD,
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR J. PARKER.
1817.
TO THE
RIGHT HONOURABLE
CHAIRMAN
OF
ON THE
POOR LAWS;
THESE FEW PAGES
ARE INSCRIBED,
ing ;
and also because his assumptions will
which they
are not so justified, the facts from
favour.
To restrain or reduce an existing inconve-
nience is the object in the first case. To keep
an inconvenience excluded is the object in the
second. In the one, much must be conceded
to past mistake 5
in the other, nothing ought
to be conceded, to the infringement of the in-
terest in question.
lity
of finding a supply of work for those
who may be thrown out of employ the
amendment of the administration of the law
the management of work-houses the artificial
ception.
Asubscription then to the common paro-
chial stock might be made useful to improve
and certify the claim of parties afterwards
c
18
nity; it is
especially sacred by a reverence of
converse mistake.
" In medium is a tempting senti-
qucerunt"
C 2
20
ment. seems to be in the way both to bene-
It
;
little circle: more is too much for him.
c 4
24
that particular purpose upon himself; and, as
a most necessary stipulation of justice, in or-
der that he may never lose by the exercise of
his economy, that the full amount of his con-
pressed, its
superabundant labourers will not
be taken off by the alternation of success in
another, but the thriving line will rear and at-
tract labourers of its own. The supernumerary
hands will remain such, and will be thrown
therefore for a time upon their own economy,
or upon the Poor Laws, which discharge them
from that economy. If an instantaneous trans-
fer of residence, as well as of manual habits,
D
34
have systems of parish labour cannot
said, that
even be expected to make good their own ex-
pences. A
very ,short computation may shew
us, that on the side of the parish concern, the
part of it
by law under a special appro-
laid
the chance is
greatly lessened of making any
profitable use of them. The supply of labour
may be in one place ;
the chance of turning
D 3
38
that labour to profit, or the want of capital,
E 2
.52
its main branches remains in force, work-
houses will exist and their good or bad ma-
;
E 3
54
more weight of character to uphold the provi-
sions made for them. In short, I think that
from the walls of a workhouse the very strong-
est attack is to be made upon the gentlemen
To
take leave of this subject of workhouses,
I would beg to suggest, whether it might not
be of some advantage to their good order, if an
inspection of them at stated times, suppose
twice or four times a year, were directed to be
held by a committee of magistrates, and one
annual report made by them, of their internal
condition, with the particulars of the number of
inhabitant poor, course of work, amount of ex-
pence, accompanied with such general observa-
tions, as might mark their sense of the correct
or faulty state of management and
; this report
weekly offerings.
The utility of this system, when it is vindi^
59
cated at all, is often said to be in keeping
kept down by
the rigour of the overseer hold-
unfairly.
If this parochial system cannot stand on the
63
my own apprehension of it ;
I shall trace, very
sibility is the
spring of the practical principles
of virtue. It enters into our highest duties.
The Poor Laws shake this foundation. They
tell man, he shall not be responsible for his
a
want of exertion, forethought, sobriety. They
deal with him, as if no such responsibility ex-
isted. By cancelling the natural penalties of
a great deal of his vice, they darken and per-
cancy ?
of some apprehension. It is
quite possible
for a very opulent country to be most se-
turn.
At the same time, projects of amendment
have no right to be very sanguine in the
extent of their aims. For the particular in-
terests of the country, which are the
most nearly
affected by the constitution of our Poor Laws,
are by no means beholden to those laws for all
the injury or benefit of which they are ca-
pable. We must not suppose therefore, that,
if they were set as
completely at ease, as
the most satisfactory removal of all that is ob-
money itself. A
given rate, or assessment,
nominally the same, or lower, might in this
way be a greater real money value than it was
some time before. In many of the most dis-
tressed districts, where the parochial rates have
nearly equalled the rents, a nominal average
87
would therefore be no effectual benefit; and
yet it is in those districts that the alleviation of
the burthen is the most wanted.
It is manifest also, that a peremptory restric-
private.
After these preliminary remarks, I shall not
shrink from the hazard of stating, under some
few separate heads, what seems to offer itself
as the practical result issuing from the general
considerations which have been suggested.
And doing this, I shall follow the simple
in
rara^b
96
H
98
parish; and must these dependents go into it
for that month or
fortnight ? If they are to
live at home, how are they to render the
ciple of it.
As to the support of children, the general
H 3
102
heart, as inducement and reward, instead of
through the parish books, as matter of strife
and dependence, and worthlessness of service.
In the country, the labouring class, if they
chose it, and were either trained, or reduced,
to the best management of their own in-
is their demerit.
The agriculture of the country its mass in
neficially ;
that is, in cases of enclosure, by one
general arrangement with the poor of the
whole parish, the grants being made as an
equivalent for all demands upon the parish for
107
ever, with the reservation only of the re-
lief in old age. It is too obvious, that the
absolute discharge of the parish is a necessary
management.
After the expiration often years, no ne-
III.
decayed poor.
Ageneral enactment would express, that
after the term of ten years, no person should
demand legal relief, in consideration of his
being out of work. Another enactment, that
after that time, no person should demand legal
relief in consideration of his having children,
the offspring of a marriage contracted prior to
the passing of the law (Unless he had Three
;
spirit,
as well as condition, of their whole class
in the community.
casioned us so much
trouble and anxiety. It is
FINIS.
222
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